Adopted by a Pilgrim Goose

[oskardolittle]

Hi all,
I am completely new to this site and geese. We are lucky enough to live on a fairly large river in Brisbane Australia, and have a fairly large (>200 square metres) lawn right down onto the river. A few weeks ago a beautiful grey/brown goose "adopted" the lawn, and has stayed ever since. Afte reading a few posts in this website, we decided to offer "him" (subsequently worked out it's probably a female Pilgrim given her colouring) some vegetable peelings every few days to supplement the grass. She is quite happy for us to share the lawn with her...we don't try to hand feed but simply leave the peelings on the lawn. She has quickly learnt that snacks are coming when we head down there! She even waddles toward us from wherever she is, even if out swimming on the river.
I'm confused though, why she doesn't seem to have a mate or a flock? Without knowing her age (her head is white but her body tan/grey), is it possible that she has lost her mate...would she normally have a flock around her despite this? It's coming into spring here, so I wondered whether she's perhaps molted and just "holidaying" with us while her feathers come back in (we haven't seen her fly, but she does quite a bit of wing flapping...no obvious new feathers however). Perhaps she's just too young to have mated?
Does it seem odd that an apparently "wild" goose would just turn up alone, out of the blue?


Thanks in advance for any advice/opinions you can give.

 

[livininbrazil]

Hi oskar, I see no-one has offered any thoughts yet, so I´ll just put in what I´ve observed, which is that my geese (had them 3 years) always stay with their mates, love the family, so it seems strange that this goose would be on her own. Could it be that someone dumped her? If you care for her well by giving her greens, she´ll probably stick around, even moreso if you get her a friend. Could be a gander, or a goose, two females get on fine . I love mine, they are so interesting and funny. But they definitely like goose friends. It´s coming into spring here, too, and they´ve been busy making new geese for the family!

 

[RURU]

I agree that someone dropped her off there or they put her on the river behind your house and she has found your home and now likes it there because you are offering goodies for her/him.
If you plan on her staying and taking care of her you might want to get her up to your property and have a fenced in area for her. Or do you just want her to be where she is at? The thing I worry about is predators and getting and eating this goose.
You need to let us know what your plan is this goose???

 

[Miss Lydia]

and pictures too would love to see her/him.

 

[oskardolittle]

[/IMG][/IMG]Hi all,

Thanks for your help...it hadn't really occurred to me that she may have been "abandoned" by an owner onto the river...we see so few geese locally that I assumed she must have "blown in" on a storm or got lost enroute home. I've always thought that geese all flew quite long distances and am only now learning that quite a few of them aren't migratory! (Pardon my ignorance!)
As much as I'd love to bring her up to the house, we really are in a very suburban neighbourhood, so most of the rest of the yard is paved and she'd have nowhere to graze (and an old dog who would probably just ignore her but you never know) so she's probably got the best chance of escaping predators down on the river. We are quite lucky in that the only predators she might meet would be feral cats...but I haven't seen any evidence (ie dead birds or critters) in the 12 yrs we've lived here, and for a strange reason all our neighbours seem to be dog people, rather than cat people, so not even any local pet cats really.
I will try to work out how to add photos so you can see the "home" she's adopted for herself and some pics of her...I would definitely appreciate your opinions on whether she is in fact a pilgrim (or mix with pilgrim) and whether I'm right to assume from her colours that she's female...
Pics soon hopefully!

 

[oskardolittle]

Oh sorry, I didn't do so well with the pics...thought I had posted 3!
More soon, better o to work...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oh sorry, I didn't do so well with the pics...thought I had posted 3!
More soon, better o to work...

I clicked on it and it becomes large, she does look to be Pilgrim and most likely she didn't fly in. Dogs are a big enemy of geese so I hope your neighbors have theirs contained. She is very pretty. and I see a duck walking along the water. So she isn't quite alone.

 

[livininbrazil]

I see two ducks, I´m sure she´ll be quite fine in her new home. I wonder why someone might dump her?! It looks great there. If dogs were a big problem, the ducks probably wouldn´t hang around. She´s very pretty, looks at least part-pilgrim, or "Australian Settler Goose" as is the new name for them there, as I understand it. Enjoy her!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I see two ducks, I´m sure she´ll be quite fine in her new home. I wonder why someone might dump her?! It looks great there. If dogs were a big problem, the ducks probably wouldn´t hang around. She´s very pretty, looks at least part-pilgrim, or "Australian Settler Goose" as is the new name for them there, as I understand it. Enjoy her!

There are 2 ducks I only saw the one by the water. Ya'll enjoy your spring I can't hardly believe summer is almost gone here. Neat name Australian Settler Goose, I like that.

 

[oskardolittle]

Hi all and thanks for your comments...much appreciated- I think she was quite clever to pick us but now I'm definitely being biased!!

Wide shot hopefully of her bank...

Our otherwise very suburban street from the road!

I would very much like for her to stay, but I worry that perhaps it would be kinder to arrange for the local Uni (the only place within 10kms I can think of with free range geese around their ponds) to collect her so she can mate. I don't think we'd have much luck catching her ourselves!!
You're right their are actually loads of wood ducks, native hens, cockatoos and even cormorants keeping her company. One pair of ducks even have a dozen new born chicks -too cute!